After a fall of tea party squalls and a winter of Republican icy opposition, Democrats were finally able to sufficiently game the legislative system and muster enough votes to pass Obamacare. Almost serendipitously, the passage of Obamacare coincided with the beginning of spring.

A new Gallup poll finds the favorable standing of the Democratic Party has dropped to its lowest level in the 18-year history of the party image survey. And for the first time in five years, the Republican Party actually has an edge in favorability over Democrats — something previously thought to be a categorical impossibility for at least a generation.

One other dark cloud in health care reform’s political paradise for Democrats: Nine-term incumbent Bart Stupak, who traded away his pro-life ethical concerns for a worthless piece of paper, is hanging it up. If a congressional lifer like Stupak thinks his vote for the health care reform bill is too heavy a political burden to carry, that could be bad news for Democrats in competitive districts, like Obamacare supporter Ciro Rodriguez.

Polls are fickle, like people. And there’s still plenty of time before the November election for Republicans to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. But for now, the American people better hope that the promises about the benefits of health care reform related to costs and access to treatment hold up better than the promises about the political benefits of the bill itself.